Upcoming Event: 4th Annual Sunshine Week Conference

Freedom Of Information Oklahoma’s fourth annual Sunshine Week Conference will be held on Saturday, March 12. The daylong conference kicks off with the keynote speech at 9 a.m.  This year’s conference theme is “Putting Muscle Behind Oklahoma’s FOI Laws.”

The conference, set at The Oklahoman Tower, 9000 N. Broadway, Oklahoma City, will feature:

• State representatives discussing bills requiring the Legislature to comply with Oklahoma’s Open Meeting and Records laws;
• A panel of Oklahomans who have gone to court seeking information under the Open Records Act and challenging the conduct of public bodies under the Open Meeting Act;
• A workshop training the public to use the Open Records Act and spot the most-likely violations of the Open Meeting Act;
• Robert J. “Bob” Freeman, a national Open Government Hall of Fame inductee, will offer advice on creating a state agency to help Oklahomans when officials wrongly withhold records or restrict access to open meetings. As executive director for the nation’s first-such state agency, Freeman is responsible for providing advice about New York’s open records and meeting laws to the public, state and local governments, and the media. Freeman’s keynote address also will offer advice on making Oklahoma’s open government laws work for the public.

The luncheon will include a tribute to former Oklahoma Supreme Court Justice Marian Opala. Recipients of FOI Oklahoma Inc.’s annual Marian Opala First Amendment Award and three freedom-of-information awards will be recognized, as well as winners of the first FOI essay contest for college students.More conference details can be found here: http://foioklahoma.blogspot.com/2011/02/international-expert-on-government.html.

You can download a registration form here.  Register soon because seating is limited.